History Research Guide

Writing and Citing Sources

Good citations should clearly spell out the sources you have used, and make it easy for readers of your paper to track down the works you have consulted. For guidance on constructing references, try our Citation Builder and/or consult the style manuals below (the print versions provide the most complete information about writing, plagiarism, and citing sources in a wide variety of formats).

If you are writing for a class, ask your instructor which style manual is preferred. If you are writing for publication, find out what style your publisher requires.

Research and Documenting Sources (Purdue Online Writing Lab)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/index.html
Provides easy-to-follow guidance for citing sources in a variety of formats. See especially:

The Chicago Manual of Style
Guide from Purdue Online Writing Lab
Guide by Diana Hacker

Citing Electronic Information in History Papers
http://history.memphis.edu/mcrouse/elcite.htmll
Maurice Crouse (Department of History, The University of Memphis)

A Brief Citation Guide for Internet Sources in History and the Humanities
http://www.h-net.org/about/citation/
Melvin E. Page (H-Net)

Tools For Creating Citations

See schedule for Workshops on Citation Management tools.

The library supports a variety of tools that help you keep track of information sources, and cite them correctly. These include:

Zotero
Browser-based (Firefox) extension that allows you to collect, organize, and export a variety of research materials - especially nice as an easy way to keep track of webites, but can also accomodate citations from databases.

RefWorks
Tool for managing citations for major projects. You can import citations from databases, and incorporate them into you research papers.

Citation Builder (from LOBO)
Quick tool for creating correctly formated citations.

KnightCite
Another tool for creating citations. This one includes Chicago Manual of Style format.

Librarian Contact Information

Cindy Levine, Research Librarian for the Humanities
(919) 515-2915
cindy_levine@ncsu.edu